Former RIT and Hershey goalie Jared DeMichiel talks about his new career as a coach ahead of tonight's Penn State vs. RIT matchup

The Penn State Nittany Lions take on the RIT Tigers tonight at Pegula Ice Arena. I thought this would be a perfect time to touch base with former RIT Tiger and Hershey Bear goalie Jared DeMichiel.

View full sizeDeMichiel during training camp with the Bears: photo by Derek Meluzio

"DeMike" guided RIT to the Frozen Four a few years back. Following that performance he signed with our Hershey Bears of the AHL. He played in five games that season with Hershey and also played in numerous games for the Bears affiliate the South Carolina Stingrays.

Jared has taken time out of his very busy schedule to answer a few questions for "Stack the Pads". In this Q&A he talks about coaching college hockey at Nazareth, playing for the Boston Bruins in their rookie camp, eating loads of chicken parm before games, and much more.

Stack the Pads- First off, can you tell us about your coaching career? What program are you with and what are your duties there?

Jared- I am currently an assistant coach with the Nazareth College Men's Ice Hockey team which is a Division III school that competes in the ECAC West. I'm also obtaining my Masters in Business Management while at Nazareth. People in the Hershey area may be familiar with the league because Lebanon Valley College use to compete in the same conference.

During my second professional season, I was quite the suitcase in September/October and after talking things over with my agent he thought it would be hard to find a permanent home in the AHL/ECHL unless teams had injuries. It was a tough decision to make, but I thought it would be best in the long run if I got a jump start on my coaching career at a young age and I started to work with the Nazareth program in November of 2011.

Nazareth is a new Division III program hockey program and in 2011-2012 the head coach George Roll and I focused on recruiting and preparing for the first season of competition in 2012-2013. Now that we have an established roster I am still heavily involved with recruiting, day to day operations, video break down, directing the power play, working with the defense, and obviously the goalies too!

Stack the Pads- Can you tell us a bit about your playing career after Hershey? What was it like participating in the Boston Bruins prospect camp?

Jared- After my first year in the Capitals organization with Hershey and South Carolina I ended up starting my second season of pro hockey with the Boston Bruins September Rookie Training Camp. During camp I was lucky enough to get in a game vs the New York Islanders which was a pretty cool experience and something I'll be able to tell my kids about.

View full sizeDeMichiel with the Hershey Bears: photo by Derek Meluzio

After Boston's training camp I got pretty skilled in packing up my bags! I headed to the Providence Bruins training camp and from there I ended up in Kalamazoo in the ECHL. After a couple weeks in Kalamazoo I moved to the Chicago Express in the ECHL. Chicago was affiliated with the Columbus Blue Jackets that season and they ended up signing Manny Legace to their AHL Team in Springfield after I was in Chicago for a few days. After signing Manny, Columbus sent down a contracted goalie to Chicago and with being the new goalie in town I was the odd man out.

I had some short-term opportunities in the ECHL or go over to Europe, but none of the opportunities were that appealing and that's when I decided it would be in my best interest to start my coaching career.

Stack the Pads- How has it been transitioning from playing to coaching?

Jared- I would say it has been a fairly smooth transition going from playing to coaching. I definitely miss playing, but I enjoy the new opportunities that coaching brings as it's fun to watch your players develop and see them succeed in game situations. Coaching on ice and recruiting have sort of been like second nature after being around the game so long. I have a pretty decent memory of all the drills I did through junior, college, and pro that I could implement with our team at Nazareth.

I've also worked other hockey camps in the summer like the USA Hockey Select 17 and Select 16 camps to further my development as a coach. The biggest challenge as a coach is that I cannot crush as much chicken parm at pre-meals like I use to as a player because those calories are slowly starting to catch up to me!

Stack the Pads- I also understand your college career has been honored by Atlantic Hockey. Can you tell us about that?

Jared- Last March the Atlantic Hockey Association announced their 10th Anniversary All-Decade team and I was lucky enough to be one of the players announced to that team. Some of my team mates from RIT were also announced to the team which is a great honor for all of us.

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Thanks Jared and good luck this season with Nazareth. Watch the blog for video and photos from the PSU vs. RIT game soon. Below are a few videos of Jared with the Hershey Bears. In the first one you can even see him still sporting his RIT mask.

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